Registration is now open for the Annual KHA Quality Conference, March 14-16 in Louisville.

Hospitals, physicians and other health providers are experiencing the need to improve the services and skills they previously offered to meet the growing needs of tomorrow’s communities. This is a time when all of health care needs to crowd together to seek innovations and maximize the quality service provided to patients at all levels of care. 

At the core of every functional and efficient team is a stable leader who operates with integrity and determination. Keynote speakers Pat Day, Joe Pusateri and Christian Lillis have demonstrated this through the impressive achievements acquired over the course of their careers. The Kentucky Hospital Association’s Annual Quality Conference will begin with an afternoon on Leadership, followed by a day dedicated to Falls and Infections, and...

KHA and the K-HIIN group recently recognized David Nicholson, staff educator at The Ridge Behavioral Health System as the latest Patient Safety Hero Awardee. Nicholson was nominated by Kellie Holland, associate administrator at The Ridge, for being instrumental in creating a culture of safety for both patients and staff.

Nicholson is committed to reducing incidents of seclusion, restraint, patient aggression with injury and patient aggression without injury. To achieve these objectives, he focuses on non-physical forms of de-escalation in a crisis and helps staff prioritize when to use physical interventions. 

Nicholson volunteered for training to be an instructor for both Handle With Care (HWC) and Verbal De-escalation. Within two weeks of becoming...

On or about December 20, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will likely update its Hospital Compare website with new star ratings and release the list of hospitals receiving Hospital-Acquired Condition (HAC) penalties for fiscal year (FY) 2018. Corrections to the star ratings calculations likely mean that significantly fewer hospitals will receive a three-star rating this year than last. As a result, many more hospitals will receive four or five stars, while additional hospitals will receive one or two-star ratings. In the past, release of the HAC payment penalty list and the star ratings have generated media attention. 

AHA released a Quality Advisory yesterday to help organizations prepare for the public release of the star ratings and...

KHA and the K-HIIN group recently recognized Sherry Slone, House Manager at Saint Joseph Martin as the latest Patient Safety Hero Awardee. Slone was nominated by Billie Turner, chief nursing offiver for her efforts in leading patient safety improvements throughout the hospital.

As per Turner, Slone performs at a high level of accountability in almost all the categories highlighted by the Patient Safety Hero Award. She leads the facility's 16 safety coaches and takes responsibility for educating them and keeping them up to date as well as assisting all of them in completing their weekly reports. Slone has been heavily involved in Saint Joseph Martin's sepsis improvement efforts. She currently reviews all sepsis diagnosis charts for compliance with their sepsis bundle and also assists...

KHA and the K-HIIN group recently recognized Teresa Daniels, infection prevention (IP) at Clark Regional Medical Center and Bourbon Community Hospital as the latest Patient Safety Hero Awardee. Daniels was nominated by Vicki Breeding, director of EVS and Amy Kenney, director of Laboratory Services at Clark Regional Hospital, for her efforts in leading patient safety improvements throughout the hospital.

Daniels was recognized for her outstanding service to the facility not only as IP but also as an invaluable asset to the EVS director and staff. She has worked tirelessly to educate and empower EVS staff to help them realize how critically important it is for them to do their jobs completely and thoroughly, every time. She has an annual infection control education class for EVS staff to review...

Health Care Quality Week is the week dedicated to celebrating the contributions professionals have made in the field and bringing greater awareness to the profession of health care quality. Health care quality professionals work in every health care setting to enhance care delivery, optimize value and improve outcomes by leading activities in one or more of the following core quality functions:

Patient safety Regulatory and accreditation Quality review and accountability Performance and process improvement Health data analytics Population health and care transitions Take a moment this week to thank your quality and patient safety team for the work they do every day to help your hospital care for patients and have the best outcomes possible for the patient, their family and the health care team! For more information, visit http://nahq.org/about/healthcare-quality-week.

Reach and network with Kentucky hospital decision makers by becoming a sponsor of the 2018 KHA Quality Conference. This event attracts nearly 200 health care professionals from Kentucky hospitals.

Attendees include hospital chief executive officers, chief nursing officers, quality directors, infection preventionists, pharmacy directors, chief medical officers and other health care professionals. The conference features recognized health care leaders and subject matter experts while providing multiple networking opportunities with key hospital decision makers.

For details, view the event sponsorship brochure.

If you have any questions,...

KHA and the K-HIIN group recently recognized Eric Nordman, antimicrobial stewardship pharmacist at St. Elizabeth Edgewood as the latest Patient Safety Hero Awardee.  Tracie Shelton, director of patient safety/accreditation and infection control nominated Nordman for his efforts in leading patient safety improvements throughout the hospital.  

As per Shelton, Nordman holds a Bachelor’s degree and MBA from Northern Kentucky University, and he holds a Doctorate in Pharmacy from the University of Cincinnati. He served as the Antimicrobial Stewardship Team Lead for the Quality Transformation C-diff initiative. He met with and educated hospitalists and gastroenterologists on appropriate testing and best practice ordering protocols for C-diff. He created an EPIC report to identify patients with...

KHA and the K-HIIN group recently recognized Sherri Boggs, quality, risk and safety manager at Our Lady of Peace Hospital in Louisville as the latest Patient Safety Hero Awardee. Boggs was nominated by Keith Rankin, the hospital's director of nursing, for her efforts in leading patient safety improvements throughout the facility.  

Rankin called Boggs the "crown jewel" in the efforts that have gone into the building of a great safety culture at Our Lady of Peace over the last 5+ years. She has led the journey by taking the reins and keeping all other leaders and departments on a steady track for success. When starting their "Safety First" journey, the measures that were in place to review events and prevent harm were mediocre at best Rankin noted. It seemed as though serious safety events were frequent and that processes were examined infrequently. Boggs was a key piece of transforming that culture and as a result, OLOP has grown into a facility that places safety at the front of care. Their patients feel safe and the facts show this,. The hospital has extended its time without a Serious Safety Event to over 400 days, which is an incredible feat in a facility with such a high-risk population. 

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KHA and the K-HIIN group recently recognized Brooke Roberts, Joshua Veilleux, Sam Gabbert and Sonya Downs at Saints Mary and Elizabeth Hospital as Patient Safety Hero Awardees. All were nominated by Twinetta Nusz, program manager of patient safety, for their efforts in leading patient safety improvements throughout the hospital. Congratulations to all of the awardees and the entire team at Saints Mary and Elizabeth Hospital for all of their patient safety successes.  

To nominate a member of your hospital's team, please visit the K-HIIN Patent Safety...

KHA and the K-HIIN group recently recognized Tim Trottier, chief executive officer of Spring View Hospital, as the latest Patient Safety Hero Awardee.  Trottier was nominated by Linda Hunter, the facility's chief nursing officer, for his efforts in leading patient safety improvements throughout the hospital. According to Hunter, Trottier was instrumental in helping Spring View improve quality, safety and satisfaction within the hospital. His achievements include improved patient, physician and employee satisfaction and decreased patient harms. 

To demonstrate his commitment to quality and patient safety he became a “Certified Professional in Patient Safety” CPPS. He most recently engaged a Patient Family Advisory Board (PFAB) that will lead the hospital’s mission to “Make Communities Healthier.”

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This week, KHA and the K-HIIN team are conducting a two-day TeamSTEPPS program at Clark Regional Medical Center in Winchester. Twenty-seven hospital employees from Clark Regional Medical Center and Bourbon Community Hospital are attending the program. TeamSTEPPS is a program of teamwork tools aimed at optimizing patient outcomes by improving communication and teamwork skills among health care professionals. 

If you are interested in learning more about TeamSTEPPS or if you are interested in hosting a program in your facility, please contact Donna Meador at KHA (dmeador@kyha.com).

KHA and the K-HIIN group recently recognized Amy Griffith, RN, from Rockcastle Regional Hospital as the newest Patient Safety Hero Awardee. Griffith was nominated by Tammy Brock, the hospital's quality/patient safety director, for her efforts in leading patient safety improvements throughout the hospital. Brock noted that Griffith has taken the lead role in reducing readmissions in the organization and discharge phone calls are a huge part of that. 

Griffith was instrumental in instituting a new discharge call system, training and implementing the system, analyzing the data from the system and more. Griffith discovered the hospital's patients did not understand the medication sheet that was sent home with them, so she worked to create a better discharge medication sheet. She has taken over the role as a "care manager" and makes sure the discharged patients have everything they need to be successful at home. In one instance, a wife could not get her husband to his follow-up doctor's appointment, so Griffith worked with the doctor's office and the office's nurse practitioner was able to make a home visit.  

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KHA and the Kentucky Hospital Improvement Innovation Network (K-HIIN) recently recognized Donna Davis, chief nursing officer at Georgetown Community Hospital with a Patient Safety Hero. Davis was nominated by Georgetown's CEO William Haugh for her efforts in leading patient safety improvements throughout the hospital. 

Per Haugh, Davis was the first CNO within LifePoint Health to become a Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS) by the National Patient Safety Board. In 2016, she led way for Georgetown Community Hospital to reduce the overall HEN HAC rate to 3.719 per 1,000 patient days, which was a 35% reduction from 2015. She also lead the organization to an overall readmission rate of 4.1% in 2016, which is below the national average and the 2015 GCH rate of 5.5%. Finally,...

KHA staff members and representatives from two Kentucky hospitals — Owensboro Regional Health and Spring View Hospital — are attending the HRET national meeting, "2017 The Journey Ahead: Advancing Health in America" in San Diego this week. Additionally, Owensboro Regional Health presented a story board at the meeting.

K-HIIN was able to sponsor two representatives from two hospitals to this combined meeting of HRET, the Institute for Diversity, and the Physician Leadership Forum. The goal of the event is to co-create a new direction, engage in robust discussions about the future of health care, and share ideas with colleagues from across the country. Specific topics covered include quality and patient safety, high reliability, equity, patient and family engagement, physician inclusion, population health...

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Hospital Research and Educational Trust (HRET) set regular milestones for HIIN programs around the country. The latest milestone required 70 percent of the hospitals participating in K-HIIN to submit data on all applicable topic areas for the time period of October 2016 through February 2017. K-HIIN hospitals went above and beyond the goal, as 94 percent of the participating hospitals met their milestone in all applicable areas.

K-HIIN received additional funding for meeting this pre-set milestone, which will be passed on to all the participating hospitals who met their individual milestones. It is because of the hard work and dedication of the hospitals that K-HIIN continues to receive this funding to improve patient care and quality in Kentucky.

Hospitals meeting milestones 1-3 will receive their funding this week.

If you have any question about K-HIIIN and other quality programs at KHA, please contact Donna Meador at KHA ( dmeador@kyha.com)....

The Kentucky Hospital Association (KHA) held its yearly Awards Luncheon on May 19, as part of the 88th Annual KHA Convention in Lexington. During the event, six hospitals from across the state were recognized with KHA Quality Awards. This award is presented to honor hospital leadership and innovation in quality, safety and commitment in patient care.

This year’s recipients were:

Marcum and Wallace Memorial Hospital , in Irvine, for their work in LEAN Management and Rapid Improvement Events; Twin Lakes Regional Medical Center , in Leitchfield, for their use of a patient safety partner in implementing a discharge follow-up call system to collect data and prevent unnecessary readmissions; Frankfort Regional Medical Center , in Frankfort, for using an innovative approach in managing COPD patients across the continuum of care; Norton Women’s & Children’s Hospital , in Louisville, for studying...

Quorum Health Resources is hosting a Bootcamp for Quality Directors (and others who may need an update) in May in Brentwood, Tennessee.  With the hospital’s financial performance and viability increasingly tied to quality, patient safety and patient satisfaction, the role of the Quality Director has become critical to the hospital’s success.

This hands-on basic training session focuses on teaching the core skills that every Quality Director must have to be successful in today’s turbulent health care times. 

For details and registration information, visit https://quorum.eventsmart.com/.

Don’t miss out on the March 14 KIPSQ Safe Table on Health IT Safe Practices at the Crowne Plaza Louisville Airport. This event will be held in conjunction with the KHA Quality Symposium, March 14-15.

The safe table will begin at 9:00 a.m. (ET) with speakers from ECRI Institute and end with lunch speaker Wes Butler. Please plan to attend this exciting event and learn more about the risk of copy and paste. This is a free event for KIPSQ members, and CEU hours are provided.

Event Links Quality Symposium Brochure Symposium Registration Safe Table Agenda...

KHA is now accepting applications for the Annual KHA Quality Awards. Please see the application for the full details. Applications are due on April 7. Awards will be presented at the KHA Annual Convention Awards Luncheon in May in Lexington.

More details on the award, and details on past recipients is available in the Safety and Quality section of the KHA website, www.kyha.com.

If you have any questions, please contact Elizabeth Cobb at KHA (ecobb@kyha.com).

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has revised online tutorials that help researchers and others use the agency’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). HCUP, the nation’s most comprehensive source of hospital data, includes national and state data on inpatient care, ambulatory care and emergency department visits. The updated HCUP Overview Course provides information about the sources of HCUP data, features of the database, software tools and products. Additional tutorials instruct users on...

The K-HIIN Kick-Off Meeting will provide insight into how the Kentucky Hospital Improvement Innovation Network (K-HIIN) will use the successes of the Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) to launch the next phase of this national initiative for quality and outcomes improvement in hospitals. Attendees will learn about the goals and requirements of the HIIN and how the innovations, virtual learning opportunities and hospital-level techniques of the program will take your improvement work to the next level.

View the brochure for agenda details, and register online today to reserve your seat for this important meeting.

If you have any questions, please contact Sharon Perkins at KHA (sperkins@kyha.com).

The Kentucky Hospital Association is hosting a oneday program addressing critical topics for quality leaders to strengthen your QI program and improve your CAUTI/ CLABSI measures. The event will be held at the Paroquet Springs Conference Centre in Shepherdsville on August 23.

For program details, view the brochure. Online registration is open so reserve your seat today.

KHA, through support from the Rural Hospital Flexibility Program, will host a Critical Access Hospital (CAH) Quality Leader Boot Camp on August 23,. This one-day program addresses critical topics for CAH quality leaders including strengthening your QI program with effective planning and benchmarking, preparing for changes in Conditions of Participation (CoP) and other important clinical topics.

View the brochure for program details and register today to reserve your seat.

The Kentucky Hospital Association (KHA) held its yearly Awards Luncheon on May 13, at the 87^th Annual KHA Convention in Lexington. During the event, six hospitals from across the state were recognized with KHA Quality Awards. This award is presented to honor hospital leadership and innovation in quality, safety and commitment in patient care.

This year’s recipients were:

• Marcum and Wallace Memorial Hospital , in Irvine, for their “Network Community Lung Cancer Screening Program”;
• Rockcastle Memorial Hospital , in Mount Vernon, for their “I am the Patient Experience” project;
• Twin Lakes Regional Medical Center , in Leitchfield, for “Creating a High Reliability Organization”;
• Kosair Children’s Hospital , in Louisville, for their “Reduction of Central Line Associated Bloodstream Infections” program;
• Central State Hospital , in Louisville, for “Improving Patient Safety in Environment”; and
• Continuing Care Hospital , in Lexington, for their Medication Reconciliation” program.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is hosting listening sessions this week to share more information about the recently released Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM).

Overview of the MACRA NPRM

Date: Tuesday, May 17 Time: 12:00 - 1:30 p.m. (ET) Details: The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA)...

Don’t forget to register for the May 10 MLN Connects® National Provider Call, MACRA Listening Session: Quality Payment Program Proposed Rule. This call will be an opportunity for stakeholders, specifically Part B Fee-For-Service clinicians, and state and national associations that represent health care providers, to provide the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) with early feedback on the proposed policy for the Quality Payment Program. To participate, visit the MLN Connects Event Registration page. Space may be limited, so please register early.

CMS also encourages you to register for:

The...

CareChex has released its listing of America's Top Quality Providers for 2016, and Kentucky hospitals have been ranked among the best in the nation. CareChex is a division of Comparion Medical Analytics — a Quantros health care information services company. CareChex provides clinical, financial and patient satisfaction findings to consumers, providers and purchasers of U.S. medical care. The rankings provide a composite evaluation of all components of medical quality including process of care, outcomes of care and patient experiences.

The following lists Kentucky hospitals that were ranked in the top 10% nationwide in several different categories (number shows overall ranking):

Overall Hospital Care

46. King's Daughters Medical Center, Ashland

146. Owensboro Health Regional Medical Center

Overall Medical Care

20. King's Daughters Medical Center, Ashland

205. St. Elizabeth Fort Thomas

218. Norton Hospitals, Louisville

Overall Surgical Care

51....

KHA is hosting a two-part educational webinar program on CMS Quality Based Payment Reform Programs for acute hospitals with content provided by KHA data analytics partner, DataGen. In order to participate in the webinars, you must register in advance using the links below.

Tuesday April 12 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. (ET) DataGen Review of Medicare’s Value-Based Purchasing Program for Kentucky Hospitals https://datagen.webex.com/datagen/onstage/g.php?MTID=ec1dae3260357942e49e688b7b7ed22cb Tuesday April 26 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. (ET) DataGen Review of Medicare’s Readmission Reduction & HAC Programs for Kentucky Hospitals https://datagen.webex.com/datagen/onstage/g.php?MTID=ea3de65d771dfe6dce2ae3e4329f020f0...

From the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) - Key skills may be lacking among many nurses who treat patients with urinary catheters, according to a recent AHRQ-funded study. The researchers found that recommended procedures to test for catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), a common hospital-associated infection, are not followed in many cases. Collecting specimens for urine culture is a key part of testing for CAUTI, requiring proper procedures for arriving at accurate results and keeping patients safe. Of 394 nurses studied, 76 percent reported receiving education on CAUTI risk reduction within the last 12 months. Almost half of the nurses did not believe that their peers comply with urine sample collection standards. This research indicates the importance of addressing both nursing competencies for obtaining urine cultures and nurses’ knowledge as to when the culture is indicated. The researchers concluded that nurses are not commonly evaluated on the skills of placing and maintaining...

Kentucky Hospital Association is pleased to partner with other infection prevention stakeholders in offering the fourth Statewide Infection Prevention Boot Camp on March 8 and 9 in Lexington. The sessions are designed for both experienced IPs and those new to the field. All hospital IP professionals should plan to attend as topics will include emerging pathogens, outbreaks and compliance with newly implemented regulations.

On March 9 and 10, KHA is hosting its Annual Quality and Hospital Engagement Network Conference. All hospital chief nursing officers and quality leaders are encouraged to attend. Education will center on patient safety culture, physician accountability, information technology and building successful improvement systems. There is no cost for the Quality Conference as HEN funds are supporting the event.

...

Answers to many of the questions submitted by participants during the Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH) Quality Reporting Program (QRP) Provider Training offered in Baltimore, Maryland, in November have been posted and are available on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) website at https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/LTCH-Quality-Reporting/LTCH-Quality-Reporting-Training.html, under ‘Downloads’.

Additionally, CMS will host a follow-up webinar on February 3. The primary focus will be on Sections GG (Functional Abilities and Goals) and M (Skin Conditions) of the LTCH Continuity Assessment Record and Evaluation (CARE) Data Set V 3.0. Information about Section O (Special Treatments, Procedures and Programs) and where to find additional assistance...

Louisville's Norton Women's & Kosair Children's Hospital joins St. Elizabeth Medical Center (Edgewood) and UK Chandler Medical Center (Lexington) in receiving a baby-friendly designation from the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative.

Currently, 326 U.S. hospitals and birthing centers in 48 states and the District of Columbia hold the Baby-Friendly designation. Every hospital that attains the Baby-Friendly designation must demonstrate successful implementation of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.

For more information about the initiative, visit http://www.babyfriendlyusa.org/.

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KHA is now accepting applications for the Annual KHA Quality Awards. Please see the application for the full details. Applications, including full payment are due on April 1. Awards will be presented at the KHA Annual Convention Awards Luncheon on May 13 in Lexington.

If you have any questions, please contact Elizabeth Cobb at KHA (502-426-6220 or 800-945-4542 or via email at ecobb@kyha.com).

The Joint Commission has released its annual Top Performers on Key Quality Measures List, and 24 Kentucky hospitals were recognized for 10 different categories in the report.

Heart Attack

• Baptist Health Madisonville
• Frankfort Regional Medical Center
• Meadowview Regional Medical Center
• Owensboro Health Regional Hospital
• St Elizabeth Edgewoord
• St Elizabeth Florence
• St Elizabeth Fort Thomas
• UK Chandler Medical Center

On September 24, HRET (the American Hospital Association’s Health Research and Education Trust) executed a contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for the Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) 2.0 Project.

Two kickoff webinars will be held this week to get the project started. Both events will cover the same topic (details on how to join the AHA/HRET HEN 2.0 initiative):

AHA/HRET HEN 2.0 Hospital Kick Off Webinar September 29 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. (CT) Register at https://hret.adobeconnect.com/hospitalkickoff/event/registration.html.

October 1 (Repeat Webinar) 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. (CT) Register at https://hret.adobeconnect.com/hospitalkickoff/event/registration.html.

The Kentucky face-to-face...

KHA, through support from the Rural Hospital Flexibility Program, will host a Rural Hospital Quality Leader Boot Camp for small rural and critical access hospital patient safety and quality leaders August 5 and 6. The 1 ½ day program includes training on TeamSTEPPS skills followed by a general quality leadership education workshop. The program will help quality leaders hone their communication and leadership skills as well as improve focus on best practices, data collection and benchmarking and engaging team members and leaders.

The event will be held at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Harrodsburg. For details, view the event brochure. Online registration is available at https://secure.kyha.com/imispublic/....

DataGen will host a 1-hour webinar on Medicare Quality Based Programs on Monday, June 15 at 3:00 p.m. (ET). This webinar was suggested at the DataGen Annual meeting as a means to ensure hospitals understand these evolving programs. Registration is required and available at https://datagen.webex.com/datagen/j.php?RGID=r3d6bf7e541221b27a726eb35ff707839. After your request has been approved, you will receive instructions for joining the meeting.

The KHA Quality Award, honoring leadership and innovation in patient care quality, safety, and commitment, was created in 2006 to honor and spotlight those hospitals excelling in patient safety and quality efforts.

In order to help other hospitals learn from this year's winners (listed below), KHA has posted the winning award applications on its website at http://www.kyha.com/2015-quality-award-recipients/.

Critical Access Hospital – St. Elizabeth Grant in Williamstown Under 100 beds – Rockcastle Regional Hospital in Mount Vernon 100 to 250 beds – Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center in Danville Over 250 beds – Owensboro Health in Owensboro Psychiatric Care – Eastern State Hospital in Lexington Post Acute Care – Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital in Lexington ...

In less than two weeks, U.S. News & World Report will issue its new Best Hospitals for Common Care rating system. U.S. News & World Report will portray data on more than 4,500 hospitals. The system evaluates how well hospitals perform for common conditions and procedures such as heart bypass surgery, hip replacement, knee replacement, heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Hospitals and health systems have an opportunity to review their data in advance of its publication by logging into the U.S. News Best Hospital Dashboard. Hospitals are strongly encouraged to review the data. If you do not have a login to the dashboard, you can request one at the login screen. For more information on the new rating system, please see the AHA Quality Advisory, Hospital Compare Star Ratings and Other New Hospital Rankings Coming Soon,...

The Leapfrog Group has issued its newest Hospital Safety Scores, which assign A, B, C, D and F grades to more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals based on their ability to prevent errors, injuries, accidents and infections. For the first time, the Hospital Safety Score website offers an enhanced feature, allowing users to view a hospital’s current score alongside its previous scores over the past three years, so that consumers can evaluate whether the hospital has maintained consistently strong performance or shown a pattern of improvement.

Visit http://www.hospitalsafetyscore.org/ to review your facility's scores. If you would like talking points for discussing your score with the media, please contact Pam Kirchem at KHA (502-426-6220 or 800-945-4542 or via email at pkirchem@kyha.com).

On April 7, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) held its regular Open Door Forum (ODF) devoted to hospital and hospital quality issues. The Agency reminded providers that it has extended its "Probe and Educate" program related to Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) review of hospital inpatient claims through April 30. As of now, relevant claims with dates of service from October 1, 2013, through April 30, 2015 are not subject to formal review by RACs. Though that would lapse as of May 1, 2015, CMS noted that legislation before Congress would extend the period through fiscal year (FY) 2015.

Other topics included wage index appeals, open payments review and coverage of CT scans for lung cancer.

A summary of the Forum from Health Policy Source is available at http://www.new-kyha.com/Portals/5/NewsDocs/ODFSummary040715.pdf.

KHA is hosting two separate opportunities for Kentucky hospitals (those who have participated in K-HEN in the past, or who might be interested in participating in future HEN activities with KHA) to hear about the next phase of the Centers for Medicare & medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) program.  KHA will be continuing its partnership with the Hospital Research and Education Trust (HRET), its national partner. 

The webinars will provide more information about the CMS timeline, clinical focus areas both required and optional, requirements of participating hospitals and KHA/K-HEN resources to support hospitals participating with us.

KHA asks that all hospitals interested in continuing HEN work with KHA, or those interested in participating in KHA/K-HEN for the first time, participate in one of the two webinar options:

Friday, February 27 from 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET  Tuesday, March 3 from 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET   Dial in               1-877-594-8353

Access...

The KHA Annual Quality Conference will be held March 18 at the Crowne Plaza Louisville Airport. The Conference updates both clinical and administrative participants on national patient safety and quality improvement trends. The 2015 program will focus more specifically on a number of improvement efforts including readmissions, HSOPS, culture, meds to bed and incentives.

Please view the brochure for Conference details and registration information. Please use this hotel reservation link or contact the hotel directly at 1-888-233-9527 and reference "Quality Conference."

If you have any questions, please contact Sharon Perkins at KHA (502-426-6220 or 800-945-4542 or via email at sperkins@kyha.com).

KHA is now accepting applications for the Annual KHA Quality Award. Please see the application for the full details. Applications, including full payment are due on March 20.

If you have any questions, please contact Elizabeth Cobb at KHA (502-426-6220 or 800-945-4542 or via email at ecobb@kyha.com).

The Kentucky Hospital Engagement Network (K-HEN) team will be traveling around the state to review the progress made in the past three years related to the program.  

Kentucky hospitals are encouraged to send a representative to one of the three regional meetings to accept an award. The locations and registration information are below:

Monday, October 27 at Baptist Health Madisonville Tuesday, October 28 at Highlands Regional Medical Center in Prestonsburg Wednesday, October 29 at Jewish Hospital Shelbyville Register online or return the registration form by October 24 to Sharon Perkins at KHA via fax 502-426-6226.

If you have any questions, please contact Melanie Moch or Sharon Perkins at KHA (502-426-6220 or 800-945-4542 or via email at mmoch@kyha.com...

The National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ) offers many resources on their Web site to help you celebrate Healthcare Quality Week: October 19-25.  For more information, including planning materials and promotional products, please visit the NAHQ Web site.

The stakes are increasing for hospitals under the growing Medicare quality reporting and incentive programs. Hospitals that only felt a “pinch” in payment cuts may now feel a true “bite.” This webinar series will take hospital leaders through the “nuts and bolts” of the federal incentive programs and provide guidance on understanding impact modeling reports distributed by KHA on each of the programs.

Information will also be provided on how to use performance knowledge and hospital resources to improve results in the CMS incentive programs. During the webinar, you will hear case studies from hospitals on initiatives and activities used to reverse poor performance trends.

Webinar 1: Value Based Purchasing: Understanding Your Performance and How the Program is Evolving - October 8 at 11:00 a.m. (ET)/10:00 (CT) Webinar 2: Hospital Readmission Penalty Program: Impact to Your Hospital and Avoiding Common Mistakes in Achieving Improvement - October 15 at 11:30 a.m. (ET)/10:30 (CT) Webinar...

As of the most recent data download to the Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET), 80 percent of Kentucky hospitals participating in the Kentucky Hospital Engagement Network (K-HEN) are reporting and 80 percent are reaching/meeting national benchmark goals in five different focus areas — Early Elective Deliveries, Pressure Ulcers, Other Obstetrical Harm, Falls and Venous Thromboembolisms (VTE). 

KHA and K-HEN congratulate all the participating hospitals on making great strides with their dedication to improving patient safety and quality. For more information about K-HEN, visit http://www.k-hen.com/.

On July 23, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) conducted a webinar to explain changes in the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) program, as KHA briefly outlined (see article). Many hospitals were unable to join the webinar, so the slides are available at http://www.new-kyha.com/Portals/5/NewsDocs/ProviderCallSlides%2007232014.pdf for your information.

CMS plans to conduct additional webinars/conference calls to repeat the information. KHA will notify you when they are scheduled.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has awarded new quality improvement organization (QIO) contracts. For the first time, CMS restructured the QIO program by separating the QIO’s case review work from the quality improvement work, and issued separate requests for proposals (RFPs) and contracts for each. Two contracts were awarded to Beneficiary and Family Centered Care QIOs (BFCC-QIO) to perform case reviews, quality of care reviews, diagnosis-related group (DRG) reviews, EMTALA reviews, appropriateness of setting reviews, medical necessity reviews, readmission reviews, Physician Acknowledgment Statement monitoring, appeals and sanctions. KePRO (which previously held the QIO contract for Ohio), was awarded the BFCC-QIO contract for Kentucky as well as 32 other states and the District of Columbia. Kentucky hospitals should have received a letter from KePRO indicating they will begin this work August 1, and advising that hospitals should download, sign and return a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA)...

On July 18, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) awarded additional contracts as part of a restructuring of the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) Program to create a new approach to improve care for beneficiaries, families and caregivers. QIOs are private, mostly not-for-profit organizations staffed by doctors and other health care professionals trained to review medical care and help beneficiaries with complaints about the quality of care and to implement improvements in the quality of care available throughout the spectrum of care.

The new contracts being awarded to fourteen organizations represent the second phase of QIO restructuring. The awardees will work with providers and communities across the country on data-driven quality initiatives. These QIOs will be known as Quality Innovation Network (QIN)-QIOs.

QIN-QIO projects will be based in communities, health care facilities and clinical practices. They will drive quality by providing technical assistance, convening learning and action networks for sharing best practices, and collecting and analyzing data for improvement. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) National Quality Strategy (NQS) and the CMS Quality Strategy provide the framework for the contracts along with the companion, recommendations and priorities....

More than 1,500 hospitals participating in the AHA/Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET) Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) — including the Kentucky hospitals participating in the Kentucky HEN (K-HEN) — improved care for more than 143,000 patients since January 2012, resulting in an estimated cost savings of more than $1.3 billion, according to results released July 16.

Among other improvements, participating hospitals prevented more than 110,000 readmissions; nearly 19,000 early elective deliveries (which can increase complications); and more than 8,500 infections. The project is part of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Partnership for Patients (PfP) initiative.

The results will be shared at the Second Annual Quality and Safety Roadmap, hosted by the AHA’s Symposium for Leaders in Healthcare Quality July 19-20 in San Diego. For more on the HEN project, visit www.k-hen.com, www.hret-hen.org...

Healthgrades has recognized 381 hospitals across the nation that have achieved the 2014 Healthgrades Patient Safety Excellence Award™. The distinction places this group of hospitals within the top 10 percent of all hospitals evaluated for their excellent performance in safeguarding patients from serious, potentially preventable complications during their hospital stays.Two Kentucky hospitals received this recognition: Baptist Health Lexington and T.J. Samson Community Hospital in Glasgow.

In its related report, entitled Finding and Preventing Patient Safety Incidents, Healthgrades explores the ways U.S. hospitals successfully find ways to not only reduce their events, but to outperform expectations in prevention of safety incidents. A copy of the report, which includes a listing of all the recipients of the Patient Safety Excellence Award, is available here.

The Kentucky Hospital Engagement Network (K-HEN) is providing a three-tiered incentive program for participating hospitals. The purpose of the incentive program is to encourage hospitals to submit data in a timely manner, complete at least one Harm Across the Board Report and achieve the overarching goals of the program – 40 percent improvement in outcome measures and 20 percent reduction in readmissions. Hospitals that already have very good outcomes will receive support for sustaining their excellent work. The funding should help offset financial burdens for engaging in increased data submission and/or support additional resources for quality improvement. Participating hospitals have the potential to receive a maximum of $6,000 in incentive funding.

The first quarter incentive payments will be sent out today. K-HEN has one hospital with full participation in first quarter data submission which has also completed a the tier two requirement of submitting a Harm Across the Board Report. There are...

On May 7, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced an overall nine percent decrease in hospital acquired conditions (HACs) nationally during 2011-2012. HACs are undesirable situations or conditions for patients that arose during a hospital stay.

HHS reported that national reductions in adverse drug events, falls, infections and other forms of hospital-induced harm are estimated to have prevented nearly 15,000 deaths in hospitals, avoided 560,000 patient injuries and saved approximately $4 billion in health spending over the same period.

Kentucky hospitals are cheering today’s announcement because they played an integral role in improving many of the quality indicators on which HHS focused. Since 2012, the Kentucky Hospital Association has led a statewide initiative to reduce preventable readmissions and HACs in Kentucky hospitals. This effort, known as the Kentucky Hospital Engagement Network (K-HEN), was conducted in partnership with the American Hospital Association and...

On May 1, KHA distributed an electronic survey via e-mail to all Kentucky hospital chief nursing officers and directors of quality. The survey is part of KHA's strategic planning process as the Association begins to plan for sustainability of valuable quality improvement resources to support identified needs. KHA asks every hospital to share some brief information about the quality improvement relationships in which you engage and provide feedback on both the value of the Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) services as well as services provided by other third parties. The survey should take less than 10 minutes to fill out. CNOs or directors of quality should be well positioned to answer the questions which include information about any quality improvement (Q.I.) consulting arrangements you have, the range of services provided within these programs, cost associated with projects, value of services you use and Q.I. needs your hospital has identified for the next three years.

The survey link is https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QIProgramValue....

KHA has received a grant from the Anthem Foundation to support the “Improving Patient Safety for Mom and Baby” initiative. The project kicks off March 28 with a webinar at 10:00 a.m. (ET).

KHA encourages all Kentucky birthing hospitals to participate in this worthwhile project. Please see the commitment form, due April 15, for more details.If you need more time, please contact one of the staff members below as soon as possible.

Kentucky hospitals that offer birthing services already strive to provide the best and safest care for moms and babies, and want Kentucky to show the best possible outcomes, both short term and long term. Unfortunately the commonwealth still has lower rankings in several areas:

Kentucky's most recent six-month rate of Early Elective Deliveries is 10.9 percent, which is still significantly higher than...

Applications are now being accepted for the 2014 Annual KHA Quality Award. Please submit your application before April 1. The applications will be judged by non-KHA affiliates.The awards will be presented during the Awards Luncheon at the KHA Annual Conference on May 9.

Download the Application and learn more about the award on the Quality Award page.

The annual KHA Quality Conference and K-HEN Showcase will be held March 18-19 at the Crowne Plaza in Louisville.

Day one will be the Quality Conference and will feature husband and wife patient advocate team from the Chicago area, Mr. and Mrs. Bob Malizzo, who lost their adult daughter to a medical error and now serve on that hospital's quality review committee.  In addition there will be presentations on High Reliability, Value-Based Purchasing, Analyzing your Data, Reporting Quality to your Board, IP Basics, Improving HCAHPS scores, Root Cause Analysis and more.

Day two will be a K-HEN Showcase, which will include presentations by the K-HEN Seed Grant Awardees and hospitals involved in the Lean and Readmissions Discharge Phone Call projects;  Reporting Harm Across the Board; presentations from K-HEN hospitals on Patient and Family Engagement and more.

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According to a News Flash from the American Hospital Association, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has delayed the deadlines for reporting certain quality data as part of the inpatient and outpatient quality reporting programs from February 1 to Saturday, February 8, due to the severe weather impacting the southeastern United States. However, this delay applies to all hospitals.

For the inpatient quality reporting (IQR) program, the population and sampling data for chart-abstracted quality measures for the third quarter of 2013 (discharges from July 1 through September 30, 2013) will be due on February 8. For the outpatient quality reporting (OQR) program, the data for chart-abstracted measures, as well as population and sampling data for the third quarter of 2013 (encounters between July 1 and September 30, 2013) will be due on February 8. The deadlines for other IQR and OQR measure data remain unchanged.

For questions regarding these deadline changes, hospitals in Kentucky...

Last week, KHA e-mailed the most recent Pay for Performance (P4P) quality reports to hospitals. The Quarterly Update is based on Hospital Compare’s Quarterly (third quarter 2013) Data Release. 

This analysis is designed to provide hospitals with a comparative review over time of the quality data collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) and published on the Hospital Compare website. All of the sources, time periods and measures analyzed are defined in the the included description document. Hospital performance, U.S. average, and U.S. top 10 performance performance are from the quarterly updates to the CMS Hospital Compare quality database from December 2010 (fourth quarter 2010) through December 2013 (fourth quarter 2013) when available. The measure collection dates related to these database updates are listed directly on the report. 

Please note that this analysis evaluates performance scores for ALL hospitals included in CMS' Hospital Compare database regardless of estimated Value-Based...